The Clarks

of Windham County, Connecticut and Kirk Deighton, Yorkshire, England

I derive ancestry from two families of the surname Clark(e): one line descends from Joseph Clarke, an early settler of Rhode Island. The other line, which I will discuss on this page, descends from Francis Brigham Clark, my maternal grandmother's most recent ancestor to emigrate to this country.

Francis Brigham Clark came to the United States at the age twenty-two in July 1836. He was born at Ingmanthorpe Grange in the parish-town of Kirk Deighton, (near Leeds) in Yorkshire, England. Francis was the fourth of eight children of William and Elizabeth (Brigham) Clarke of Kirk Deighton. The christening records of William and Elizabeth Clark's eight children appear in the Bishop's Transcripts of the Parish Church of Kirk Deighton. It appears from Kirk Deighton records that Francis came from a large clan of Clarkes who had been in Kirk Deighton for at least four generations before him.

As a young man in England, Francis Clark was trained as a tanner and currier. Upon his arrival in the United States, he quickly found work at the Fry Tannery in Plainfield, Connecticut. Soon thereafter, he took a job with the tannery of Earl Warner in Brooklyn, Connecticut, a business he eventually took over and purchased as his own. On March 4, 1841, he married Sarah Heath of Ledyard, Connecticut, the eighteen-year-old daughter of Amos and Mary (Chapman) Heath.

Francis and Sarah Clark had eight children, six of whom survived to adulthood. My great-great-grandfather, Levi Nelson Clark, was their youngest child. Two of Francis and Sarah Clark's sons served in the Civil War, one served in the Connecticut State Legislature, and three of their sons moved west to California, where they remained for the rest of their lives.

My line of ancestry, from Francis Clark down to my maternal grandmother is as follows:

1 Francis Brigham CLARK (1814 - 1875) + Sarah Maria HEATH (1822 - 1905)

2 Levi Nelson CLARK (1863 - 1934) + Carrie Estelle LARKHAM (1855 - 1933)

3 Sarah Hannah CLARK (1884 - 1955) + Frank Rowland BURDICK (1885 - 1960)

4 Bertha Melissa BURDICK (1912 - 1976)